Ron Saia has been on over 45 cruises, written articles about cruising and helped many people who have never cruised before prepare and experience a great cruise vacation. He’s not a travel agent. He’s a do-it-yourself serial cruiser. This post focuses on getting a great deal.
The key is to start by getting a great price for your cruise vacation. Book way in advance — anywhere from eight months to a year — or select from special discounted cruises.
The first thing to decide is where to cruise — Mexico, Caribbean, Hawaii Panama Canal, Alaska or Europe? For the budget-minded, stick with Mexico and the Caribbean. These itineraries cost from around $500 to $950 per person plus tax depending on cruise line, cabin location and time of year.
As an example, let’s pick Mexico. Cruising from the West Coast is the best deal around. Low airfares can be found to Los Angeles or to San Francisco, both good cruise ports. Most cruise lines offer 7- to 10-day trips down the Mexican Riviera to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.
For our example we will choose a 7-day cruise. There are several cruise lines visiting Mexico ports. Let’s say, we pick Norweigan Cruise Lines (NCL). The best time to cruise is either spring or fall; the summer is too hot and most cruise lines go to Alaska in the summer anyway.
Go NCL’s Web site, search for destinations and select Mexico. You are looking for the section that says “Cruise Deals” or “Cruise Specials.” Click on that link and you should see selected 7-day cruises on specific dates. If none are available on the dates you want, keep looking. You want to book as far in advance to get the best “Early Booking Discount” available with the best cabin available.
Some people feel it’s best to wait and get what they call “last-minute booking fares.” Yes, that can be a valid approach. However, in reality, last-minute bookers will end up with the worst location on the ship; all the best cabin locations will be sold out. Also, the “discount” will often end up being the same as if they did the “Early Booking” and in that case they had many choices to pick from.
In all my cruising I have never purchased last-minute deals, because I always wanted to know where I was going to be on the ship. I did not want to find myself on the bottom decks or near elevators, because that is where you will probably end up. You have no control on where you will be.
Once you have found a date and time works for your schedule and the prices sound good, we turn to different cabin and deck categories. Here we have to do some more research. All prices on every ship lines are based on cabin decks and cabin locations.
Remember this: Find a cabin near the center and middle of the ship. Why? Less motion. For cruising, my mantra is location, location, location.
Don’t select a cabin near elevators, stairs or washing machine rooms. All ships have posted decks schematics on their web sites showing all these items. If your cabin is next to any of these areas, peace and quiet can be rare. Other cuisers are often up very late and they can be loud getting on and off elevators. Plus, avoid the rear of the ship where propeller noise transfers to the surrounding decks.
Before I forget, all cabins are double occupancy and all have double or single beds that convert to a king. Some cabins have fold-down cots for the children. This all adds to the decision-making process.
Once you have selected the cabin, move on to the profile section where you will fill out the passenger names, etc.
For the do-it-yourself cruiser. This is only the first step in a complex process. I’ll cover more about cruise-planning in future posts. I’ll get into detail about ship layout, paperwork requirements and passport rules, pre-board process, shipboard activities, dining options and port of call activities.
